Newcastle teens jailed for Gordon Gault gang killing

Carlos Neto and Lawson Natty, both 18, were found guilty of Gordon Gault's manslaughter

Two teenagers who killed a 14-year-old boy in a gang feud have been jailed.

Gordon Gault was fatally stabbed with a machete in November 2022, after a postcode rivalry among youths in Newcastle escalated from derisive rap videos to open violence.

Carlos Neto and Lawson Natty, both 18, were found guilty of manslaughter. Neto was jailed for nine years two months and Natty for two years eight months.

Gordon's mother Dionne Barrett said his "unnecessary" death was "devastating".

The feud between youths from the Benwell and Elswick areas of Newcastle began in the summer of 2022, with the two vying groups making derogatory rap videos mocking one another.

It escalated into "tit-for-tat violence", and culminated with the fatal attack on Gordon near Elswick Park on 9 November the same year, the trial at Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Gordon Gault died from his wounds six days after being stabbed

Prosecutors said Neto and Natty, who were associated with the Benwell group and aged 17 at the time, had gone to the park in so-called "rival territory" with several other youths.

The aim, the court heard, was to ambush someone in revenge for an attack on a member of their own gang earlier that day.

Members of the Elswick gang, including Gordon who was carrying a baseball bat while riding pillion on a bike, started to chase their rivals away.

The 14-year-old was struck under the arm by a machete wielded by Neto and supplied by Natty, and died six days later in hospital.

Lawson Natty bought two machetes online in the days before the fatal attack

Prosecutor Jonathan Sandiford KC said both Neto and Natty were leaders of their group - or "mandem", as it was referred to by the teenagers - and had "immersed themselves in a gang culture which appeared to engage in, and celebrate, acts of significant violence".

Weapons and clothes were discarded after the attack in Elswick Park, and both Neto and Natty "celebrated" the killing of Gordon by writing rap lyrics and joking in WhatsApp chats about it, Mr Sandiford said.

Dionne Barrett, Gordon's mother, told the court she and her family were "utterly devastated" and their hearts were "broken beyond repair".

She said Gordon was an "amazing, funny and kind son", a practical joker with a "pure heart of gold" who had "left this world in such an unnecessary way".

Ms Barrett said her son had been deeply affected by the death of his father when Gordon was nine years old, and was diagnosed with the behavioural disorder ADHD at the age of 12.

She said he had enjoyed playing football and riding his bike, and was a "one-off" who would "bring life to a room whenever he walked in".

Ms Barrett urged anyone considering arming themselves with a knife to "think twice", adding: "The devastation your actions cause is unimaginable."

In a statement read to the court, Gordon's grandmother Frances Gault said he was "cheeky and funny", calling the void left by his death "indescribable".

Mrs Gault said hearing the killers' messages laughing about Gordon's death "absolutely crushed" her, adding they had shown "no remorse" and she could "never forgive" them.

Gordon Gault's family said he was a practical joker with a heart of gold

In mitigation for Neto, Jason Pitter KC said it had been an "awful and depressing tragedy" which "highlights the broken environment which the young boys on both sides were living in".

Mr Pitter said Neto hoped "wider lessons" might be learnt about the "consequences" of such gang behaviour.

Benjamin Nolan KC, for Natty, described him as a "caring young man" who was born in Belgium to Nigerian parents and, upon completing his sentence, suggested he could be deported back to Belgium.

The court heard Netty had moved to Newcastle at the age of 12, and had had plans to study international business management at university.

Mr Nolan said the case had shown "how absurdly easy" it was for a young person to buy a "dangerous" weapon online, adding Natty had purchased the machetes for "protection".

'Too many lives lost'

Judge Mr Justice Martin Spencer said the two groups were linked by their NE4 postcode and a "common interest" in drill rap, which the judge described as a "pernicious" and "misogynistic" rap genre, which "tends to glorify in violence" and was admired by certain types of young men.

He said the feud between gangs began when the Elswick group recorded a "dis" - or disrespectful track - about Natty, labelling him fat - to which Natty's group responded in kind.

"Tragically it did not just stay at name-calling, but escalated to physical violence," the judge said on Friday.

He called the moment the stabbing occurred "somewhat obscure", saying Gordon was caught by a single blow on the arm.

Gordon's family said he was a "big softie" and loved his dog Bruno

It was "nonetheless, a fatal blow", the judge said, which caused huge and instant blood loss leading to irreparable brain damage.

He said he echoed police calls for people not to carry knives, adding: "Too many young lives have been lost as a result, and too many others have been ruined in consequence."

The judge said Natty and Neto were "intelligent" young men who "still have a future", adding: "Sadly, Gordon does not."

'Senseless'

Neto, of Manchester Road East in Salford, and Natty, of Eastgarth in Newbiggin Hall, were also convicted of unlawfully wounding another youth, who was slashed across the back with the same machete during the attack.

Four other associates of Neto and Natty were found not guilty of all charges; six members of the same gang as Gordon are due to be sentenced later in March after admitting affray.

Det Ch Insp Matt Steel, of Northumbria Police, said Gordon was the youngest person present that night and his death was "senseless" and "totally unnecessary".

He said the machete, one of two bought online by Natty in the days before the killing, had been too easy to buy and "should never [have been] seen on the streets of Newcastle".